LogFAQs > #979362833

Shpongle - Tales of the Inexpressible results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
NFUN (6)
Seanchan (6)
Sheep007 (6)
MaxGalactica (12)
Johnbobb (14)
HBJDubs (18)
rwlh (18)
Fluttershy_Pony (30)

General Album Comments

rwlh: Shpongle is great. I've not found many bands that combine all the sounds they combine into something this amazing. A New Way to Say Hooray is my easy pick for first place - that song gives me chills. I would best describe it as "psychedelic Space Lion."

Seanchan: Maybe it wasn't such a good idea that I did a relisten to Disco Volante just before this, because while it's not in the same county it's certainly in the same country. Both sound like the bands did a whole bunch of drugs and just did a jam session. The only difference is Shpongle at least seems like they tried to make something palatable because this at least doesn't make me want to rip my ears off.
(...)
Okay, after a second listen I want walk back my prior comments a bit. This is a genuinely good album and I see the appeal.

That said, I don't feel like this is a good album for a track ranking. This plays like an album (i.e., as a long singular piece), rather than a collection of songs. If you're not looking, it's very hard to know when a particular song begins or ends. And that's the point that bothers me a bit. I get wanting to share personal favorites, but are people asking themselves "is this a good choice for a track ranking?". As a personal example, I'm a big fan of Deadmau5's Random Album Title, but I'd never nominate it because it plays best as an album with the songs flowing into each other.

FoolFantastic: I listened to the album but I tend to do so while I'm working and wasn't paying close enough attention to notice the transitions so I'm probably not going to bother ranking the tracks. The music was fine enough if a little tiring by the end.

Johnbobb: this album fucking rules, guess I'm a shpongle fan now

NFUN: I am completely gestunkenflucht. This album is such an amazing conglomeration of random things I love--weird semi-ambient New Age electronica, psychedelic rock, overuse of samples for context in lieu of vocals, and whatever the fuck Osamu Sato does. WHY IS THIS THIRD EYE. WHY IS THIS BOSSA NOVA. WHY IS THIS BEYOND THE BOUNDS. I've heard a few albums that absolutely love to play with genres (usually because of Steiner), but this album is much more... I don't want to say "coherent", because it really isn't; maybe subtle? Often, when the song isn't doing something overtly ridiculous, I don't even really notice that the genre had slid over the course of the song to something entirely different yet still quite natural. Given how each individual song is kind of several songs and the album as a whole is kind of one song, I should be a little annoyed at this being hard to rank, but fuck it, I don't care. Fuck you. This album rules.

Giggsalot: Not sure if I'll be able to get round to this, but for anyone discovering Shpongle here and enjoying this: their next album (Nothing Lasts... But Nothing is Lost) is even better!

(I also prefer their fourth album to this one too, but that's more or a minority opinion)

Seanchan: A fairly arbitrary ranking due to the nature of the challenge, though I'm feeling pretty confident about first and last.

There's two questions I ask myself at the end of each week. Would I listen to this again? and Would I listen to something else from this group? With Shpongle, the answer to both is definitely yes! It's certainly hard to place this album, with it's EDM-ish bits, the samples, and the general bits of weirdness that reminded me a tiny bit of Rusted Root. But it all managed to come together!

HBJDubs: This was my introduction to psychedelic music, and I was immediately blown away by how good this album, and Shpongle in general, is. I had more to say, but NFUN pretty much sums it up! If you enjoyed this, definitely check out Nothing Lasts...But Nothing Is Lost; it was the other album I was considering for nomination, but Tales just has a little more sentimental value to me.

MaxGalactica: Yeah, this album's pretty awesome. Only one song felt like it dragged too long, and the rest felt like fountains of creativity exploring all sorts of different sounds. I especially loved the incorporation of flute with all of the unique synths used. Dorset Perception was a clear standout to me, but I really liked nearly every song on the album. Great pick for this week.

Sheep007: What an incredible album. Gestunkenflucht indeed. I'm fine with a track ranking for something like this, I think by my third listen they were distinct enough to pick one song out from another. The only reason I'd consider avoiding ranking is that it would be a disservice to Shpongle to put one part of this album above any other. I have been listening to Shpongle constantly this past week while writing my thesis and I can feel my mind expanding. I really, really cannot emphasise how much I enjoyed this. Listen to Shpongle.